Chicken Woes

I wanted to let you know that I REALLY loved your comments about marriage! It's so lovely and wonderful to hear about other women and their real feelings and experiences about such a serious/awesome/wonderful subject. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts, especially because these things can be hard to share and yet are very helpful. It doesn't make us feel so alone, I suppose. =)

I felt that it helped me learn a little more about you, Kim. I barely know you, let alone your girls and husband. And it's wonderful to learn real and important things! And I admire that you and your husband can be different and be okay with that, respecting each other and your boundaries. And it's okay if other people don't quite understand because the important thing is that you both do. =) It encourages me to see you expressing that since you've been married much longer than I and have seen so much!

Kelly, you speak to my heart! I am glad I'm not the only chick to sit around wishing for things I didn't know were in my power to change and get!

June and Calysta, thanks for your support as always. It's nice to have sisters and mother's in law to grow with, all in our different stages and learning different things and helping each other.

Thanks for helping me learn; there's so much to discover!

And now for an update on our chickens. I've had a few worries with them lately. One chicken has been pecking a hole in the top of her eggs. This bugged me, I can't use a holey egg. We have mice lurking about the coop because of all the chicken feed around, and I worry about hantavirus. But the egg peck is interesting because she always pecks it right where the little air pocket is and so there's never been egg actually coming out. I "blew" a few eggs and put hot chilies in them along with pepper and chili powder. I placed it in the nesting boxes to discourage pecking of eggs. But the egg was gone the next day, and I haven't seen it since. I think someone ate it! Blast these New Mexican chickens that like hot red and green chilies!

Then, a week or two later, Lucas found a smashed egg in the nesting box. Egg all over the place! The next day, another smashed egg on the floor of the coop in the hay. This coincided with one chicken mysteriously getting out of the coop(I really mean the fenced yard around the coop) and no matter how closely we watched her, she managed to sneak out undetected. For days this went on, until Shane caught her in the act. Ta da! He tried to take a picture, but she'd already hopped down.

In spite of freshly-cut wing feathers on one side, she was flying up to the gate and hopping over to the other side. This was our Americauna, who is supposed to lay green eggs. However, she laid a brown egg on our front porch. BAH! Happily, the other Americauna appears to be laying the proper color, as we now have green eggs appearing.

And, although I've thought about solutions to my egg-smashing problem and gate-flying problem, I haven't done anything about them. And both things have not happened in a week, now. And two days ago I got SEVEN eggs! Then five, then four. Chickens are weird and who knows WHAT is going on in their pea brains. Something is going on in there, but I'm not sure what!

Also, our chickens only lay brown and green eggs. The white one in the picture is from the store for variety and comparison. =) I want to get two more chickens, maybe ones that lay white eggs. I'm just not sure, yet.

So if anyone has solutions about chickens, let me know. Otherwise, I think I might have to get rid of my pecking chicken to someone who wants a pet or meat.

Maybe donate her to Wildlife West.... ;)